As it stands right now, the Red Wings' World Championship participants include only Pavel Datsyuk (Russia) and Jonathan Ericsson (Sweden), with Niklas Kronwall a "maybe" if the Wings' doctors don't tell him to a) not go or b) that he doesn't need arthroscopic knee surgery to "clean up" his troublesome left knee per a Tuesday appointment.

May 10, DetroitRedWings.com: “I’m looking forward to it, to have a chance,” Datsyuk said, who also
represented Russia in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic last February. “Of
course I want to play hockey. I’m a hockey player. I love my job. I’m
happy to play. I have time now.”

As Caples notes, Ericsson wants to play alongside his brother, Jimmie, who hasn't spent any period of time on the same team as "Jonte" since their days playing in the Swedish third division for Vita Hasten:

“It was easy,” Ericsson said. “I’ve never played on the big national
team before, so it’s going to be fun, I think. And another more fun
reason is my brother is playing, too. … It’s pretty special.”

Wings coach Mike Babcock approves of Ericsson's decision, and Ericsson tells Crechiolo that he learned quite a bit from his tremendously difficult sophomore season

“It’s very important that he goes,” Babcock said. “The message I had for
him is don’t go there and look at the players and say he’s better than
me, he’s better than me, he’s better than me. On our team, you go OK,
Nick’s there, Rafi’s there, Stewie’s here, Kronwall’s here. Forget that.
Just go there and be the best D man. And you know, I thought Big E was outstanding last year in the
playoffs. I thought he was inconsistent more so this year. That’s a
learning curve for you, you’re getting better. He’s got to come back
next year and take a real step, because it helps us be better but he
wants to and he’s very capable.”

As for Howard...

“I made the decision (Sunday) night that respectfully, I’d decline,”
Howard said. “Just because groin’s not 100 percent, and we thought it
would be better than running the risk of going over there and setting
myself back for training this summer.”
...
“It wasn’t [my regular season workload],” he said. “I mulled over it pretty much all day
yesterday of what to do. I talked to my family, I talked to my agent, I
talked to some of the guys around here, and just figured, you know, the
best decision is to get healthy and get ready for next year.”

Zetterberg offered the following...

“For me, it was (an easy decision),” he said. “I called them yesterday
and said I wouldn’t go, and needed this break. I’ll be able to take good
care of the body for a few weeks here, and go at it again.”

And Filppula told Crechiolo that he needed to rest and recover after suffering a rib injury against the Coyotes:

“I just got crushed by a bad hit,” he said. “It happens in the playoffs,
but I think now is a good time to get everything healed and start
working for next year.”

As Crechiolo notes, Datsyuk and Ericsson will face off against Red Wings prospects Sergei Kolosov (Belarus) and Tomas Tatar (Slovakia).

Datsyuk also said this to the Windsor Star's Dave Waddell:

May 10, Windsor Star: Despite playing for Russia in the Winter Olympics, Datsyuk was eager
to rejoin his countrymen to try to erase the bitter memories of their
Vancouver debacle.

Russia was a heavy favourite heading into the
Vancouver Games, but bowed out in spectacular fashion with a 7-3 loss to
Canada in the quarter-finals.

“I want to play hockey,” Datsyuk
said. “I’m a hockey player. I love my job and I want to play.”